BUDDHIST HATRED

It is deeply distressing to read about Buddhist racial and religious hatred in this article in the New York Times today. It is certainly alien to everything I have learned about the Buddha and his teachings, and particularly distressing to find it rampant in parts of the world that practice in the Theravada tradition that I find most appealing. The message that Buddhism must be saved at all costs, and in any manner--including militarism and violence--from a centuries-old attack from Islam, is apparently being broadcast by even respected elder leaders of the faith. Buddhism is not spared, alas, from the fundamentalist extremism that perverts almost every other religious faith today, including Christianity, Islam and Judaism. As the world becomes less able to accommodate its most troublesome species, even the best in us seems in danger of being sacrificed to our more barbaric and tribalist instincts of self-preservation and survival.